WWE Loses Overseas TV Deal

WWE is in dire straits with one of their big overseas markets, as the company has lost its TV deal in Germany.

The network TELE 5 in Germany will not carry WWE Raw once their contract is up in March 2017. And Raw isn’t the only show looking for a new home, as WWE Smackdown is also expected to move to a new network once its deal expires. The contract for Smackdown, which currently airs on the ProSieben Maxx network, will also expire in March 2017.

Of course, WWE VP Europe Stefan Kastenmüller said that this is not the end for WWE in Germany, since there is reportedly a ton of interest from other German networks. So the hunt is on for new networks for both programs. Granted, it will be hard for the company to generate much revenue for any German network since, as Dave Meltzer wrote in the most recent Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE isn’t terribly popular with German advertisers. To make matters worse, the advent of the WWE Network has essentially killed pay-per-view revenue streams, so the networks aren’t getting any kickbacks from a hot pay-per-view show. Basically, it’s not that surprising that TELE 5 and ProSieben Maxx don’t exactly want WWE programming at the moment. Still, WWE always delivers a consistent, base number of viewers every week, and that sort of ratings consistency can be a boon to any network, since it could potentially be used to hook viewers on other programming on the network. Hell, I’m not sure I would have ever given Psych or Burn Notice if I hadn’t seen all the ads during Raw all those years ago. So the WWE brand should still have value, at some capacity.